Charles Drevna Talks Rising Natural Gas Prices on Fox Business

Charles Drevna, President and CEO of the Koch-funded oil and gas PR campaign Fueling U.S. Forward, appeared on Fox Business last week to answer questions about the rising prices of natural gas. Watch the exchange:

In case you didn’t quite follow the exchange, the host is referring to a couple of reports by the Energy Information Agency. The first is the annual Winter Fuels Outlook, which predicts significantly higher natural gas costs than last winter.

EIA forecasts gas prices will average $10.37/Mcf, 11% higher than last winter and the highest since the winter of 2010–11. EIA expects households heating primarily with natural gas to spend $116 (22%) more this winter compared with last winter, a result of the higher prices and increased natural gas consumption.

The second is about natural gas rig counts, which have been steadily plummeting from a late 2008 peak, as can be seen in this EIA graph. Drevna explains the reduction in rig count by talking about “American ingenuity.” But he neglects to mention that the easiest, most economically efficient path to lower natural gas prices is to reduce demand, which can be done—at a personal economic gain—through home building efficiency, weatherization, and replacing natural gas boilers with truly innovative, clean electric heat pumps.